Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for planning a spectroscopy measurement of an examination object by operation of a magnetic resonance apparatus, as well as a magnetic resonance apparatus and a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium encoded with programming instructions to perform such a method.
Description of the Prior Art
Magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) is an imaging modality that enables the high-resolution generation of sectional views of living organisms, such as humans. The patient is supported in a homogeneous magnetic field B0. This basic magnetic field in the FOV (field of view) is modified with gradient coils such that a body slice is selected and a spatial encoding of the generated magnetic resonance (MR) signals takes place. In the subsequent reconstruction of MR signals, for instance by Fourier transformation, an image of the selected slice is produced, which is used for medical diagnostics. The generation and detection of MR signals takes place using a radio frequency system, that includes a transmit antenna, which radiates radio frequency (RF) excitation pulses into the patient, and a reception antenna, which detects the emitted RF resonance signals and forwards the detected signals for image reconstruction. By selecting a suitable pulse sequence, such as a spin echo sequence or a gradient echo sequence, and the sequence parameters associated therewith, the contrast of the MR images can be varied diversely depending on the diagnostic task to be performed. MRT maps body structures and accordingly represents a structural imaging method.
A method based on nuclear spin resonance is referred to as magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), with which biochemical observations can be performed in a spatially resolved manner in a volume element. Different chemical substances can thus be identified and quantified in the living tissue by their chemical shift. Within the scope of magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a specific volume, which has previously been positioned using overview images, can be measured in a tissue.
The planning of spectroscopy protocols on a magnetic resonance apparatus is conventionally subject to several technical limitations. Therefore, these must be planned with the use of non-distortion-corrected images, and the bed position of an examination bed being used within the magnetic resonance device must be known. These limitations may result in restrictions in the resulting image quality and require a high degree of knowledge relating to the underlying examination process.